Stars, Hide Your Fires
by Dragon Elexus
Summary: Sapphires accompanies Pink Diamond on her new mission to the Crystal System.


**Author's Note:** This piece is paired with "My Black and Deep Desires", which can be found on my profile. It was co-written by LadyRavenEye. Hope you enjoy!

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 **Stars, Hide Your Fires**

This is Earth- or the planet that will one day bear that name.

It is a rocky planet. It is neither too close to its star, nor too far. Its unique positioning, along with other interesting geographic features, have given it an atmosphere and a surface almost entirely covered in water.

It is rich in many minerals rare elsewhere in the galaxy. Quartz, especially.

It teems with life. Green things, growing things, which live off light. Creatures that swim through the water, creatures which fly through the sky, creatures which walk across plains and over mountains and past rocky shores. Creatures that _think_ , and build tools.

There are Kindergartens. They are greater than any that have been built before. A perfect synergy of technology, organization, and geology, means that this one planet successfully incubates more Gems than any other planet in known history.

Sapphire tells Pink Diamond all this- or, no, _told_. And not all of it, all at once. Those initial visions she had, back in the sanctum on Homeworld, were vague and incomplete- she only told Pink Diamond what she knew then. In the time since, she's shared more of what she's seen, and she will tell more, in times to come.

She sees happiness on Earth, strangely. Sapphire does not know what happiness is. She has only seen it in the future of other Gems.

"I am coming with you," said Sapphire, after she had done explaining. The defiance rings- _rang_ \- between her and the giant leader of Gems in the darkness of the alcove they sat in, and Sapphire does not (did not) miss the flicker of surprise at the challenge over the Diamond's face. "To Earth."

"Has White Diamond ordered this of you?"

"No," Sapphire had said. "White Diamond does not know you are here."

In some potential futures, White Diamond had known. Sapphire had seen those possibilities, ones where White Diamond had come down into the sanctuary, explaining that she thought Pink Diamond might visit. " _Be wary_ ," she would have said, in some time-line that never came to pass. " _My fellow Diamond walks a dangerous road. She knows not where she is going. You must guide her_.

" _And watch her. And report back to me_."

This conversation had never happened, but still, Sapphire had taken those orders to heart, on the premise that that was what White Diamond would have wanted. Or that was what she had been intending, as she had waited. But when Pink Diamond had actually arrived, those orders- orders which had never given to her, anyway- had been washed from her mind by a myriad of new images.

She would not tell White Diamond what had transgressed deep in the sanctuary. This was not something that Sapphire had seen, but something she had _chosen_.

Sapphire has never chosen before. Or had never chosen. But she has now. And she will again. That is what Earth is, ultimately. A place of choice.

She is not on Earth yet. She keeps forgetting.

She is on a ship. She has her own quarters. It is nothing like anything she has had before. It is much smaller than her alcove in the sanctuary. It is filled with pale, pink light. Beneath, there is the constant vibration of the engines. After millennia of stillness, Sapphire is unaccustomed.

It's nothing compared to the constant crowd found elsewhere on the ship. This one vessel carries thousands of Gems, of all kinds- though she is the only sapphire. They all move through the hallways and corridors, the public spaces, the engine rooms and libraries and laboratories, a throng of different shapes and colours.

Those other Gems avoid her. They think she is strange, even by sapphire standards. Sapphire does not mind; they are right, and she is used to it. She spends most of her time in her quarters, or on the bridge, or in Pink Diamond's private rooms.

There's a subtle, but stark difference in how Pink Diamond conducts herself in public as in private. If she has gained something of a reputation for being a surprisingly informal and considerate commander, Sapphire wonders what would be said if she could be seen behind closed doors.

There's an uneasy balance, between Sapphires and Diamonds. Diamonds, of course, are the most Brilliant of all Gems. They are the greatest, the grandest, the most powerful, the most radiant, the wisest. The natural leaders.

Sapphires are small. They are not strong. They have speed and agility, but they are hardly unique in that aspect. By all traditional measures, sapphires should not be particularly valuable or well-regarded.

… except, they have future vision.

That changes the politics considerably. Future Vision is exceedingly useful. Everyone wants a sapphire's counsel before beginning a new, ambitious project, or to help watch the scheming and arguing from various political factions. At the same time, the Diamonds are wary of the sapphires; they fear what they could See, fear what could happen if their obedience wavers. If there is any Gem class that has not only the potential to attempt a coup, but the potential to _succee_ d, it's the sapphires.

And so an uneasy truce was struck. It was like a precarious dance, where neither partner was quite leading, and both had to be careful not to tread on the other's feet.

That was how Pink Diamond had been at first. But that changed- _is changing, will change more_. After she had seen Sapphire's unusual intensity, seen her petition Blue Diamond to accompany the fleet to the Crystal System, listened to her relate the many visions she had seen… the demeanor had changed. Pink Diamond began to smile- only occasionally at first, then in earnest. Then there had been her laughter; sometimes a soft, tinkling thing, other times full and hearty, causing her massive pink curls to shake. She began to ask questions, not just of politics and Earth and the future, but of Sapphire herself- her concerns, her opinions, _her feelings_. They speak, more openly than Sapphire has spoken in all her millennia of existence.

In the here and now, in Pink Diamond's private quarters on the ship, Pink Diamond invites Sapphire to not a metaphorical dance, but a literal one.

Just a dance. Nothing more than that.

Sapphire still hesitates. She is a creature of stillness. No matter what may one day happen, she has never danced before.

But Pink Diamond is smiling, and her Pearl's singing truly _is_ beautiful, beautiful enough to move something in Sapphire's still soul- so she stands up, and dances.

There is twirling and gliding spinning and dipping, and despite never having done it before, it all seems to come so naturally, her body moving instinctively- perhaps it's remembering dances she's yet to have, with Gems she's yet to meet-

\- and suddenly, Sapphire's not sure where or when she is, a million different places are spinning past her, but Sapphire is strong, and she is confident and she feels something that she cannot even name, and there is music, dozens of different tempos drumming through her ears, but there is also death, and destruction, and her feet are clumsy because they are _too small_ -

\- then she's on the vibrating floor of the space-ship, gasping for breath.

Pink Diamond is standing over her in an instant, asking, "Are you alright?"

Sapphire's hair fell away from her face during the fall. With her single eye, she stares up at Pink Diamond- her hand held out, her expression genuinely concerned- and Sapphire wonders, _Who are you going to **be** , Rose Quartz?_


End file.
